


Something Left to Love

by FluffyBeaumont



Category: Shetland (TV)
Genre: Drunken Kissing, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:47:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25641565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyBeaumont/pseuds/FluffyBeaumont
Summary: Takes place at the end of Season 5 of Shetland, when Alice tells Jimmy, "There is always something left to love" and Jimmy realises he can't possibly let Duncan leave Shetland.
Relationships: Duncan Hunter/Jimmy Perez
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Something Left to Love

It's very late when Jimmy hears Duncan's key in the door, and Duncan is very drunk. Jimmy suspects he's been down on the beach again with a flask of whisky, drinking his demons away. "Jimmy." Duncan stands swaying in the doorway, one hand on the lintel, holding himself upright. "Thought you'd have gone to bed by now."

"We should talk." Jimmy's voice is serious, and Jimmy's face is serious, and this is as serious as Jimmy ever gets, as serious as a heart attack. He's been sitting on the sofa waiting for Duncan to come home, waiting all these hours while Duncan has been out there in Lerwick doing whatever. Drinking, obviously, by the slur in his speech and the way his long, lean body wavers like a stalk of winter grass in an unrelenting wind. It's an unseasonably warm night, and Duncan is dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, the sleeves rolled up above his elbows, revealing his muscular forearms. Of course Duncan has muscular forearms; he does construction work. Of course the top two buttons of Duncan's shirt are undone and he can see the blood-warm hollow of Duncan's throat, the tuft of silvery chest hair glinting in the dim light of his midnight kitchen. "I waited up for you."

"Did ye now?" Duncan sways towards him, feet unsteady, and Jimmy wants to go to him, hold him up, but it's not his place to do so. Duncan must come to him of his own accord. "I spent a long time walking around Lerwick tonight, Jimmy. Walking, and..." Duncan pauses, stumbling over his words. "Walking and thinking, Jimmy. Ye told me not to go."

Jimmy rises from the sofa where he's been not-quite-sleeping and goes to him, taking hold of Duncan's forearms, his muscular forearms, his beautiful hands and how has he never noticed how _beautiful_ Duncan is? Of course he's noticed. He's noticed it every day of his life, since they were boys at school together. "I couldn't..." His voice catches, and he swallows hard, starts again. "I cannae let you go, Duncan." He shakes Duncan gently to emphasize the import of his words. "Alice told me...she gave me this book tae read, and I couldnae make heads nor tails of it. I asked her to explain it to me." His fingers tighten on Duncan's flesh, holding him. "Alice. She told me."

"Ye're not making sense, Jimmy." Duncan frees one of his hands and reaches to caress Jimmy's stubbled cheek. His fingers rasp against Jimmy's skin, smoothing and caressing, his touch hypnotic. "What is it ye're tryin' tae say?"

"She told me 'there is always something left to love' and I understand that now, Duncan, better than I ever have and it makes sense to me after all these years." Jimmy reached to cup Duncan's face in his hands. "She saw it more clearly than I ever could, Duncan. She knew, after seeing us together, Alice _knew_."

Duncan leaned his face into the caress of Jimmy's hand, eyes close, surrendering to it, wanting it, finally allowing himself to admit it after all these years. "I love you, Jimmy. Jesus Christ, I've always loved you. I've loved you since we were lads at school together. Is that so hard to believe?"

They surged towards each other, met in the middle of the kitchen and clung to each other like lovers reunited after a long and costly war. It was awkward - it was bound to be - mouths and noses bumping, teeth clashing together until the essential pulse and slide of the kiss established itself and then it felt as natural as breathing.

"I love you," Jimmy whispered, as they lay naked together in the middle of his bed, bodies clasped together, hands sliding over sweat-slick skin, wrapped around each other, loving each other. In the darkness he slid down and took Duncan's swollen cock into his mouth, licking and sucking, drawing him ever closer to the edge of absolute release, delaying it, making Duncan beg for it, until he lay under Jimmy, an erotic ruin whose pleasure had wrung him dry.

"Kiss me," Duncan whispered, and Jimmy did, lying on top of him, driving himself between Duncan's thighs, until the swollen bulge of his desire burst, drenching them both. "I love you," Duncan told him again and again, "I love you, I love you."

 _There is always something left to love._ It was never Alice; she was merely a signpost, pointing him towards his soul's true companion, the man he had loved all his life. She'd given him the gift of Duncan, and he accepted it gladly and blessed her, even as their bodies twined together in the darkness, hands and mouths bringing each other to ecstatic orgasm.

And in the silence after, he reached out and brushed Duncan's sweat-sodden hair off his brow and kissed him. "I don't know what I would do without you," Jimmy murmured. Duncan lifted his hand and kissed each of his fingers in turn.

"Shhh," he whispered. "Sleep now. Sleep."

Alice was right: there was always something left to love. There was Duncan. And he was more than enough.


End file.
